Marriage license in the context of "Vital records"

Vital records are records of life events kept under governmental authority, including birth certificates, marriage licenses (or marriage certificates), separation agreements, divorce certificates or divorce party and death certificates. In some jurisdictions, vital records may also include records of civil unions or domestic partnerships.

Joint Stock Company "Goznak" (Russian: Гознак; short for Государственный знак, lit. 'State Insignia') is a Russian joint-stock company responsible for research and development as well as manufacturing security products including banknotes, coins, stamps, identity cards, secure documents, state orders and medals, as well as providing secure services. It incorporates seven factories and one research and development institute involved in different stages of the development, research, and manufacturing cycle.

Goznak combines paper and printing facilities which manufacture banknotes, government bonds, checks, letters of credit, savings-bank books (сберегательная книжка), lottery tickets, postage stamps, blanks of passports, birth certificates, marriage licenses, as well as publications of high artistic value and special and high-grade paper.

Richard John Baker and James Michael McConnell are the first same-sex couple in the world known to have obtained a marriage license and have their marriage solemnized, which occurred on September 3, 1971, and be legally recognized by any civil government.

The couple met in 1966. On March 10, 1967 – Baker's 25th birthday – McConnell agreed to be "his lover" but only if it meant "a commitment . . . for the long haul," living openly as a married couple. That commitment continued long after "52 Years Since Same-sex Marriage Milestone".

Goodridge v. Dept. of Public Health, 798 N.E.2d 941 (Mass. 2003), is a landmark Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court case in which the Court held that the Massachusetts Constitution requires the state to legally recognize same-sex marriage. The November 18, 2003, decision was the first by a U.S. state's highest court to find that same-sex couples had the right to marry. Despite numerous attempts to delay the ruling, and to reverse it, the first marriage licenses were issued to same-sex couples on May 17, 2004, and the ruling has been in full effect since that date.